Monday, March 9, 2015

Treason

Treason against the
United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering
to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of
Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on
Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have
Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall
work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person
attainted.

It has come to our
attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that
you may not fully understand our constitutional system. Thus, we are
writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power
to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal
offices — which you should seriously consider as negotiations progress.

First, under our
Constitution, while the president negotiates international agreements, Congress
plays the significant role of ratifying them. In the case of a treaty,
the Senate must ratify it by a two-thirds vote. A so-called
congressional-executive agreement requires a majority vote in both the House
and the Senate (which, because of procedural rules, effectively means a
three-fifths vote in the Senate). Anything not approved by Congress is a
mere executive agreement.

Second, the offices of our
Constitution have different characteristics.

For example, the president
may serve only two 4-year terms, whereas senators may serve an unlimited number
of 6-year terms. As applied today, for instance, President Obama will
leave office in January 2017, while most of us will remain in office well
beyond then — perhaps decades.

What these two
constitutional provisions mean is that we will consider any agreement regarding
your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing
more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah
Khamenei. The next president could revoke such an executive agreement
with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the
agreement at any time.

We hope this letter
enriches your knowledge of our constitutional system and promotes mutual
understanding and clarity as nuclear negotiations progress.

Sincerely,

Tom Cotton

David Perdue

Joni Ernst

James Inhofe

John Cornyn

Mitch McConnell

Marco Rubio

Roger Wicker

John Hoeven

Richard Shelby

Thom Tillis

Richard Burr

Steve Daines

Jeff Sessions

John Boozman

Cory Gardner

Shelley Moore Capito

Ron Johnson

Mark Kirk

James Lankford

Chuck Grassley

Roy Blunt

John Thune

Mike Enzi

Pat Toomey

Bill Cassidy

John Barrasso

Ted Cruz

Jim Risch

Mike Crapo

Deb Fischer

Ben Sasse

Orrin Hatch

Dean Heller

Pat Roberts

John McCain

Rand Paul

Rob Portman

Lindsey Graham

Mike Rounds

Excuse me? Did I read this right?

Did these jerks just tell the Iranian government that President Obama has no power and they are the ones running the show? And that negotiating with the President of the United States is your basic act of diplomatic masturbation?

Now, I don't give a damn about their politics, their personal feelings about POTUS, their racist proclivities, or their theories on the economy. What I do give a damn about is why they thought intentionally embarrassing the United States of America while undermining the entire democratic process was an okay thing to do. They have told an enemy state that the office of the president is toothless, powerless, and by extension, the people who elected him morons and fools. They have intentionally provided aid and comfort to an enemy regime.

And if a group of Nazi-sympathizing senators sent this same letter to Hitler and the Reichstag?

If you think for one New York minute any of this would've happened to a white-skinned president, you have another think coming. What those enemy-comforting senators did today was nothing short of inviting enemy combatants to blow up the Capitol.

It's not enough they want the roads and the bridges to crumble; that they want to deny basic health care to most of this country when even Nigeria has universal health coverage. They want to strip women of their right to control their own bodies, deny African Americans the right to vote, and ravage this country economically. Now, they want to convince Iran that the US is so screwed up that as soon as the next guy is in office, he can undo treaties with a swipe of a pen.

Really?

What those 47 degenerate haters-of-America did today was an attempt to tear apart the very fabric of our duly, lawfully elected government. Their intent was to diminish our standing in the world. As if they haven't done enough of that already.

Duly elected officials of this nation speak not for themselves, but for their constituencies. They are supposed to be vox populi. I cannot, I will not believe that Americans believe this letter is constructive, rather than destructive. And I cannot believe Americans will stand still while senators invite Iran to attack the US. These are senators, folks. Every single one of them knowingly committed treason the moment pen touched paper.

It's worth mention, even the Iranians thought this was completely out of line and inappropriate. Had it been their elected officials who did this, they would already be in jail.

But 47 traitors signed the letter. We know who they are right up front. They should be arrested and tried under either martial or civil law for treason. It's just that simple.

On the other hand....it does make you wonder who masterminded this pathetic attempt to discredit America.

[addendum by the WP - it's worth reading The Logan Act of 1799. The letter is in direct violation.]

Anonymous has raised a good point. Asinine, yes. Traitorous, not so sure. We don't have an active war going with Iran at the moment, so following the "letter of the law" says that they're idiots, but not traitors. Following the spirit of the law, it gets more complicated. However, I just saw Iran's response to the letter and think it's a perfectly deft retort to the Republicans inserting themselves into the negotiations.

"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

Put it all together and it's not even a question. They were authorized by no one, communicated and gave "comfort" to a foreign power undermining lawful negotiations by this here elected government. . I don't give a shit what their politics are....you don't write letters to a foreign government stating you have the power to act.

"And if a group of Nazi-sympathizing senators sent this same letter to Hitler and the Reichstag? "

When the Nazis first came to power in 1932, CTR, which become IBM, openly collaborated with the NSDAP (Nazis) in providing them with Hollerith machines on lease, selling them millions of punch cards for them, servicing them and devising new 'solutions' that would make it easier to sell more Hollerith machines to the Germans.

Hollerith machines used punch card technology to process information from just about any source. Although the were entirely electromechanical and could only sort and tabulate data, they were the supercomputers of their day. They were primarily used to analyze and sort census information. Enabling the Nazis to identify whole, ½, ¼ and even 1/16th 'racial Jews.' Censuses and the Hollerith machines allowed the Germans to determine where every Jew in Germany and occupied countries lived and worked, as well as all of the possessions of the Jews that could be confiscated. Normally, a census took 7 years to tabulate and cross reference. With a Hollerith machine, it could be done in less than 4 months. Later the Hollerith machines were instrumental to the Germany war effort, being used to coordinate their military. Holleriths keep the trains hauling Jews to concentration camps running on time. They were widely used in concentration camps. The Reich wouldn't have been able to function as we know it without Hollerith machines.

Thomas G. Watson, president of IBM openly collaborated with the Nazis and loudly espoused Nazi ideology to whomever would listen. The Nazis gave him a 'made up' medal. (He eventually gave it back, which caused him all sorts of business problems with the Nazis.) Watson was a great admirer of fascism, particularly Mussolini's 'brand.'

IBM's activities in Europe pre-war resulted in huge profits for IBM. Which deincentivized Watson from wanting to stop.

Watson was a personal friend of FDR and on speaking terms with Cordell Hull, Roosevelt's Secretary of State. He was president of the Carnegie Foundation for World Peace, served one term as president of the International Chamber of Commerce and was head of the US delegation to the ICC after that. He suggested foreign policy to Roosevelt and, after Roosevelt didn't follow his advice, set out to establish his own foreign policy by arranging meetings with foreign delegations to formulate policy they expected the government to ratify.

What Watson did was treasonous. Unfortunately, it seems Watson may have been a little sociopathic. None the less he actively collaborated the Nazis, while being friends with Roosevelt and on speaking terms with Cordell Hull.

No letter needed. American capitalists were actively engaging in war profiteering, perpetuating war crimes under the Nuremberg Charter and committing openly treasonous acts. And the government did nothing to stop them.

Thank you for taking the time to send this over. Watson wasn't the only industrialist to aid and abet the Nazis, but he was certainly one of the most efficient. As a private citizen, there was little one could do,,,but the signers of that letter were senators, elected members of Congress who performed an act designed to undermine and embarrass the President, thereby doing real damage to America's ability to negotiate. I have a real problem with that, Perception is everything, and their act is easily perceived as an attempted (albeit somewhat lame) coup d'tat.

LINGUA GALACTICA

DREAM DANCER

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